CA1201090A

CA1201090A - Method and apparatus for producing filter-bags for medicinal and aromatic infusions

Info

Publication number: CA1201090A
Application number: CA000429008A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Nicolas Goedert
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1982-05-28
Filing date: 1983-05-26
Publication date: 1986-02-25
Also published as: ES515376A0; US4609556A; IE53195B1; DK158381B; PT75487A; ES8307639A1; ATE20656T1; DK158381C; DK363482A; GR77349B; EP0095542A1; EP0095542B1; IE822106L; PT75487B; DE3271934D1

Abstract

ABSTRACT
A filter-bag (1) for medicinal or aromatic in-fusions is provided with an exterior pocket (9) adapted to receive a tea or coffee spoon, thus permitting to maintain the filter-bag in the bottom of a cup (cf. figs. 2, 3 and 4).
A method for manufacturing a filter-bag according to the invention comprises sandwiching between two contin-uously traveling filterpaper webs heaps of plant-based pro-duct placed onto one of said webs, and partially welding an exterior paper web of reduced width onto one of said filter-paper webs, in welding said filter-bags shut and cutting them to smaller units.
Apparatus for manufacturing a filter-bag according to the invention substantially comprises two main spools (37,38) continuously feeding two filterpaper webs (43,55), a metering device (47,46,44,45) for dispensing plant-based product, an additional spool (56) continuously feeding a paper web (57) of smaller width than said first or second paper webs and being attached onto one of the latter, a welding device (49,50) and a cutting device (59,60,61,62,63, 64) (cf. figs. 9, 10, 11).

Description

lZ~10~0 Medicinal and aromatic plant-based infusion products, such as ~ea, herbal tea, coffee and surrogate products may be provided in an easv-to-use, prepackaged and ready-for-use form.
Specifically, they may be provided in little filter-bags made of porous paper, each of which is filled with a portion of product and is destined to be immersed into a cup or a glass of boiling water. However, on account of their lower apparent density than that of water, such filter-bags tend to float when placed into the water, resulting in decreased extraction efficiency of the active ingredients in comparision with a completely immersed tea-bag.
In the past, attempts have been made to solve this problem by providing the user with some kind of a special plastic spoon having a right-angle configuration into whose exterior fold a corner of the filter-bag could be nipped, thus allowing to maintain the filter-bag in the bottom of the cup or glass. The folded lower part of this special spoon is perforated and is adapted to softly press the filter-bag against the cup or glass bottom in order to completely extract the plant juice container therein. However, this solution is becoming less and less attractive due to the ever-increasing cost of raw materials required for manufacture of this type of special spoon.
Broadly speaking the present invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by providing a method for manufactur-ing infusion filter-bags, comprising placing metered heaps of plant-based product on a filterpaper web, and covering the heaps with a second filterpaper web havin~ substantially the same dimensions as the first filterpaper web, welding the two -sd/~

12~)1090 filterpaper we~s all around the circumference area of each heap, providing the second filterpaper web with at least a third paper web and welding the third yaper web onto the second filterpaper web in the area of a circumference portion of each heap such that the third paper web forms a pocket which is larger than a spoon which is to be received in the pocket and such that the pocket will loosely receive the spoon, and cutting off units having one or more filter-bags thus produced.
The above method may be carried out by way of apparatus for manufacturing infusion filter-bags comprising a first continuous-feed filterpaper spool, a second continuous-feed filterpaper spool of substantially the same dimensions as the first spool, tensioning cylinders downstream of each spool, a feed hopper connected to a distribution headbox for dis-pensing a plant-based product, a rotary metering cylinder having metering cells, two cooperating rotary welding cylinders having welding surfaces and concave receiving cells, a transverse rotary knife, a receiving platform for receiving cut-off filter-bags, and a mechanism for harmoniously moving the various mobile parts, and also comprising at least a third continuous-feed paper spool of reduced width and also adequately rotated by the mechanism, and at least a deviating cylinder downstream of the third spool, adapted to provide the filterpaper web fed by the second continuous-feed spool `
with at least one paper web exteriorly attached and extending only over part of the width of the second filterpaper web and in such a manner as to be welded onto the attachment web only at a portion of circumference area of each product heap 1~
sd/~ -2-sand~iched between the first and the second filterpaper webs.
In the appended drawings fig. 1 shows the prior art solution to the problem, figs. 2 to 11 show preferred embodiments of the invention, specifically:

~ ., ~ ~ sd/~ -2A-12~)1090 Figs. 2 and 3 show two different views of a fi]tcr-bag according to the invention;
Fig. 4 shows the~ mode of utilization of a filter-bag according to the invention;
Figs. 5 and 6 show two different views of a unit comprising coupled filter-bags;
Fig. 7 shows a view of another filter-bag in accordance with the invention;
Fig. 8 shows a view of another unit comprising coupled filter-bags;
Fig. 9 shows a flow-sheet of a preferred manu-facturing method of the filter-bag unit shown in figs 4 and 5;
Fig. 10 shows a preferred manufacturing apparatus adapted to manufacture the units of filter-bags shown in figs. 4 and 5;
Fig. 11 shows a preferred apparatus adapted to manufacture the filter-bag shown in figs. 2 and 3.
Reverting to the preferred embodiment of the invention of figs. 2 and 3, there is shown a filter-bag 1 com-'~'', kh/

1201()90 prising two porous paper sheets 2,3 welded face-to-face by means of their respective edges 4,5, the assembly having a double pouch 6,7 filled with a medicinal or aromatic plant-based product to be extracted. Frontal face 8 of the filter-bag is provided with a porous paper pocket 9 whose lower edge 10 is welded to the lower edge 11 of the filter-bag, and whose lateral edges 12,13 are welded to the lateral edges 14,15 of the filter-bag. Upper edge 16 of the pocket is loose and may yield away from the filter-bag pouch~ there-by slightly folding the latter. Thus, the lower part of a coffee or tea spoon may be inserted into said pockets (cf.
fig. 4), thus allowing to maintain the filter-bag in the cup or glass bottom under the influence of the weight of the spoon.
Figs. 5 and 6 show another preferred embodiment of the invention. On these figures, a first filter-bag 17 having a double pouch 32,33, is connected at its lower edge 18 to the lower edge 19 of a second filter-bag 20 having a double pouch 34,35. The frontal face 21 of said first filter-bag is provided with a pocket 22 and the frontal face 23 of said second filter-bag is provided with a pocket 24, said two pockets being comprised of a common sheet 25, one portion of which extends over said first filter-bag and another portion of whioh extends over said second filter-bag.
The median portion of said sheet is heat-laminated onto the area comprised of the two lower edges 18,19 placed end-to-end, whereas the lateral edges 26,27 of said sheet are heat-laminated onto both sides on the respective lateral edges 28,29 of the coupled filter~bags. The connection between d, ~.
mab/~

~2(~1090 the two lower edges 18,19 placed end-to-end of the two filter-bags is weakened, for instance by means of perforations 30, which permits to readily separate the two filter-bags in order to use them separately. Separated or considered indi-vidually, each of said two filter-bags resembles the filter-bag of the first preferred embodiment and behaves similarlyO
Fig. 7 shows another preferred embodiment of a filter-bag 31 in accordance with the invention similar to the one of fig. 2, with the difference that its pocket 32 has its loose edge oriented diagonally with respect to the filter-bag, Fig. 8 shows another preferred embodiment of a unit 33 comprising coupled filter-bags 34,35 similar to that of fig. 5, with tlle difference that the unit is provided with a pocket sheet 36 in slanted relationship with respect to said unit.
It is obvious that one or several filter-bag side or sides may have a curved edge rather than a straight edge.
It is also obvious that units may be provided com-prising three or four or more coupled filter-bags by means of a judicious combination of the preferred embodiments of fig. 2 and of fig. 5.
Fig. 9 shows a preferred method flow-sheet for the manufacture of filter-bag units such as those depicted in figs. 5 and 6, and fig. 10 shows preferred apparatus for manufacturing said units. Substantially, there is shown a first continuous-feed filterpaper spool 37 and a second con-tinuous-feed filterpaper spool 38. Downstream of each of mab/':~ -lZ(~1090 said spools there are located one or more tensioning cylin-ders, e.g. 39,40; or 41,42 respectively. The first filter-paper web 43 travels in such a manner as to wrap around a product-metering cylinder 44 describing an arc of about 90 degrees, for instance located in the third trigonometric quadrant from top to bottom. Said metering cylinder is pro-vided with circumferential pairs of metering cells 45 into which a distribution headbox 46 places the plant-based pro-duct to be packaged, said distribution headbox being topped by a feed hopper 47. During rotation of said metering cylin-der, heaps of product 48 are placed onto the first filter-paper web, which then travels into the nip of a pair of weld-ing cylinders 49,50, cooperating and positioned in a vertical mirror-image configuration. Said welding cylinders have con-cave receiving cells 51,52 and heated welding surfaces 53,54 which are heated for instance by means of water vapor. The second filterpaper web 55 wraps around the top welding cylin-der 49 describing an arc of 180 degrees located in the second and third trigonometric quadrant from top to bottom~
Moreover, the invention comprises a third contin-uous-feed paper-spool 56 from which travels a third filter-paper web 57 wrapping around a deviation cylinder 58 located downstream so as to feed said third paper web between said second filterpaper web and the top welding cylinder. However, said third paper web is narrower than said two other filter-paper webs, and it is placed in a rider position on the median longitudinal line of said two other paper webs placed face-to-face. Said welding cylinders act to weld said second filterpaper web on~o said first filterpaper web all around : '.
mab/~

lZQl~90 the circumference area of each product heap, while said third paper web is simultaneously welded onto said second filter-paper,web, but only at part of the circumference area around each product heap.
The double row of filter-bags provided with pockets thus formed is made to travel over a support table 53, and on top of its median line rides a nipping pulley 60 pressing onto a counter-surface 61 and a rotary longitudinal perfor-ating knife 62 cooperating with a rotary support surface 63.
A transverse rotary knife 64 individually cuts off the coupled filter-bag units 65 at the end of said support table.
Fig. 11 shows a preferred apparatus for manufactur-ing the individual filter-bags of fig. 2~ This apparatus is similar to that of fig. 10, except that only a single row of filter-bags is produced and that as a result there is no nipping pulley nor perforating knife, and except that the third paper web 66 is substantially displaced towards one of the longitudinal edges of said row with respect to the median line of said two other filterpaper webs 67,68 rather than being in a rider position.

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Claims

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. Method for manufacturing infusion filter-bags, comprising placing metered heaps (48) of plant-based product on a filterpaper web (43), and covering said heaps with a second filterpaper web (55) having substantially the same dimensions as said first filterpaper web, welding said two filterpaper webs all around the circumference area of each heap, providing said second filterpaper web with at least a third paper web (57) and welding said third paper web onto said second filterpaper web in the area of a circum-ference portion of each heap such that said third paper web forms a pocket which is larger than a spoon which is to be received in said pocket and such that said pocket will loosely receive said spoon, and cutting off units (65) having one or more filter-bags thus produced.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the two welding operations are carried out simultaneously.

3. Apparatus for manufacturing infusion filter-bags comprising a first continuous-feed filterpaper (43) spool (37), a second continuous-feed filterpaper (55) spool (38) of substantially the same dimensions as said first spool, tensioning cylinders (39,40; 41,42) downstream of each spool, a feed hopper (47) connected to a distribution headbox (46) for dispensing a plant-based product, a rotary metering cylinder (44) having metering cells (45), two cooperating rotary welding cylinders (49,50) having welding surfaces (53,54) and concave receiving cells (51,52), a transverse rotary knife (64), a receiving platform for receiving cut-off filter-bags, and a mechanism for harmoniously moving the various mobile parts, and also comprising at least a third continuous-feed paper (57) spool (56) of reduced width and also adequately rotated by said mechanism, and at least a deviating cylinder (58) downstream of said third spool, adapted to provide the filterpaper web (55) fed by said second continuous-feed spool (38) with at least one paper web (57) exteriorly attached and extending only over part of the width of said second filterpaper web and in such a manner as to be welded onto said attachment web (55) only at a portion of circumference area of each product heap (48) sandwiched between said first and said second filterpaper webs (43,55).

4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein at least one of said continuous-feed reduced-width paper spools (56) is adapted to position its paper web substantially in a rider position with respect to a longitudinal separation line between two contiguous, adjacent rows of product heaps.

5. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein at least one of said continuous-feed reduced-width paper spools (56) is adapted to position the greater portion of its paper web substantially towards a longitudinal edge of a row of product heaps.

6. Apparatus according to claim 3, 4 or 5 and including a nipping pulley (60) pressing onto a countersurface (61) and a rotary longitudinal perforating knife (62) cooperating with a rotary support surface (63).